There is a “Leveson agenda” behind the press investigations into MPs and peers
willing to accept money from lobbyists, Lord Soley has claimed.

The peer, a former chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party, claimed he had warned his colleagues to “be very alert” because the press is “trying to target” MPs and Lords following the Leveson inquiry into media standards.

Lord Soley made the comments after Lord Laird, the latest senior politician to be embroiled in the growing Parliamentary lobbying scandal, resigned from his party.

Lord Laird has quit the Ulster Unionist party after he offered to arrange for Parliamentary questions to be asked in return for a fee of £2,000 a month.

During a joint investigation by Telegraph and BBC Panorama programme, the peer said he was prepared to help undercover reporters posing as lobbyists to set up a Parliamentary group, “bribe” colleagues to ask questions and influence debates on behalf of a client paying him a retainer.

The scandal has already forced Patrick Mercer to resign as a Tory MP after he took £4,000 from undercover reporters posing as lobbyists who said they wanted to overturn sanctions imposed on Fiji.

A separate investigation into lobbying by The Sunday Times has also led to two peers being suspended from the Labour Party over claims they offered to carry out parliamentary work in return for cash.

Ex-cabinet minister Lord Cunningham and former senior police officer Lord Mackenzie of Framwellgate were recorded by undercover reporters posing as lobbyists.

Lord Laird was also exposed as part of that investigation.

“I do say and I’ve said it to both MPs and peers at times, ‘Be very alert at the moment’ because there is a call for proper regulation of the press as well,” Lord Soley told BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend programme.

“There is no doubt in my mind and I know this, the press is trying to target both MPs and peers at times. That doesn’t justify anything that may or may not have happened but I recognise there is a Leveson agenda here. What we need is a proper regulatory body for the press along the lines of Leveson.”